Things Are Afoot

It was such a wet and cold weekend, that I was quite frankly amazed that anyone turned up, but on Saturday I did both walks. In the morning Gill and Ian from Winchester were joined by Abhi and Ivan for the walk from Trafalgar Square to St Paul's. Seeing as it was St Patrick's Day weekend (that's right, St Patrick's Day was a whole weekend), it seemed fitting to take their photo standing outside The Tipperary on Fleet Street.

The Tipperary - Fleet Street

This tiny pub on the opposite side of the road from Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese has a rather enigmatic history, depending on what you read, but either way, it stands on the site of the old Whitefriars monastery (it's on the corner of Whitefriars street), and a pub has stood on the site for centuries. The current name dates back to the end of the First World War and the well known song, sung in the trenches, 'It's a long way to Tipperary'. It was previously called The Boar's Head and its Irish connection started in about 1700 when it was bought by a guy from Dublin called S. G Mooney. The Tipperary claims to be the first pub to sell Guinness in England.

In the afternoon, the weather cleared up a bit and I was joined by Hana and Pouyan for the walk from St Paul's cathedral to Monument via Borough. Here they are standing on London Bridge. The white, block like building you can see to their left, right next to the bridge, is called Adelaide House and believe it or not, when it was built in the mid 1920's, it was the tallest office building in London. It is now completely dwarfed by its neighbours. The Shard looms menacingly over from the other side of the river, and in the background you can see a number of other significantly taller buildings currently in the midst of construction. It's a Grade II listed building and at one time had a golf putting green on the roof. You can see a wonderful photo of the putting green in full swing at Pete Berthoud's Discovering London website.